Conventionally known floor care disks for floor polishing machines or other floor care machines generally comprise a drive plate or disk that is rotatably mounted on the floor care machine and that serves as a carrier for receiving a polishing disk, or a cleaning disk, or some other floor treatment disk. Such known drive plates or disks are generally very stiff and are flange-connected in a removable or releasable manner on a drive spindle or arbor of a rotational drive unit of the floor care machine. The floor treatment disk forms a stable platform for receiving and carrying one or more floor care pads that contact and thereby polish, clean or otherwise treat the floor surface. These floor care pads are generally flexible and deformable.
It is further known to provide less-stiff drive plates for high-speed floor care machines that operate with a very high rotational speed of the floor care disk. Such machines mostly have the rotation axis of the drive plate thereof tilted slightly forwardly in the range from 0.5° to 4° relative to vertical. Therefore, with such a forwardly tilted rotation axis, the floor care pad mounted on the drive plate theoretically contacts the floor at only a single point at the forward edge or circumferential rim of the pad, but in actual practical application the pad contacts the floor surface along a circular segment, due to flexing or deflection of the pad and/or the somewhat flexible drive plate. Such flexing or deformation of the drive plate improves the contacting osculation of the pad onto the floor surface to be treated. While such flexing or deformation of the pad and drive plate to smoothly lie in contact on the floor surface is simple while the machine is at rest, i.e. not operating, the smooth osculating contact of the pad on the floor surface is hindered or made more difficult during fast rotation of the drive plate of the operating floor care machine. Namely, the particular dynamics of the fast-rotating drive plate, in consideration of the stiffness characteristics of the deformable structure represented by the pad, the floor treatment carrier disk, and the drive plate, gives rise to flexing or deformation effects that are difficult to control and maintain in a consistent manner. Thus, the mass distribution of the drive plate and the pad mounted thereon, as well as the particular pressure loading applied through the machine onto the floor surface, can lead to the drive plate pitching or bucking or deflecting in a corrugated manner, whereby the drive plate, the floor treatment carrier disk, and/or the floor treatment pad deflect away from the floor surface that is to be treated. This occurs especially in the largest diameter range, and therefore it is possible that the desired floor contact and floor treatment effect cannot be achieved over the actual working width range of the pad. This may also lead to damage of the machine and of the floor surface that is to be treated.